First appearing in the first Night World book, Secret Vampire, as James’ cousin, Ash makes quite a first impression by convincing Poppy to go
off with him to Las Vegas, then threatening to turn the illegal vampire into
the Night World elders. The next time we see Ash is in the following
book, Daughters of Darkness, where Ash is introduced to his soulmate Mary-Lynnette Carter. The book ends
with Ash going off, vowing to make Mary-Lynnette proud of him, claiming that
he’ll “fight dragons, just like any knight for his lady.” Our next update
on Ash comes in Dark Angel, where he saves Gillian from the harm that could have come to her from the other
night people at a club. When Gillian asks him why he doesn’t hate humans
like the other night people, Ash replies simply that he “met a human girl last
summer.” So here we see that Ash is indeed changed. It’s not the end
of Ash though. He appears in one other book, Soulmate. Here he has a short conversation with Hannah at Theirrys house. Hannah
asks him where his soulmate is and Ash replies that she’s waiting, he hopes,
that he’s “got some things to put right” before he sees her. When Hannah
brings up Theirry it seems to give Ash hope, since Theirry’s been trying to make
up for the past the way that Ash is now. Finally Ash tells Hannah that
she’s like Mary-Lynnette, that they’re both wise. It’s obvious from the
way that he speaks that he’s truly in love with Mary-Lynnette, and there’s a vulnerability
in him at this point that is amazing. He’s learning to open
up.

As I’ve stated in an essay I did comparing
the “bad boys” of L.J. Smith’s books, “There’s nothing all that mysterious
about Ash.” He’s “your average teenage boy but with fangs and more power,”
the “Regular guy learning what it means to grow up.” This is indeed Ash.
Think about it. Most teenage boys have a need to please people, to
be thought cool. Ash certainly has this need and he loves the spotlight.
Therefore Ash has this persona up in the beginning, this exterior of being
a tough guy, the kind of vampire that other vampires will look up to, ruthless
and cunning. But is this really Ash? Poppy makes a comment at the
end of Secret Vampire. Ash has said that he wasn’t really intending to turn Poppy over to the elders.
James and Phil scoff

Could this be a hint that tough guy Ash isn’t really as evil
as he seems to be? My guess is yes, especially when paired with a few more
examples. For instance, Ash’s sisters amazement that he’s taking such
an interest in their future when they had assumed that he thought only of himself.
In my mind, Mary-Lynnette didn’t change Ash so much as she got him to
be more truthful to himself and who he really was, not who he wanted people to
think he was. Finally, we get to see what I believe is more than likely
the real Ash Redfern.